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pdcdesign

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FIFA10 Game Face

By pdcdesign 1 Comments

Ever dreamt of playing for your favourite club - well now you can!

In this years installment of FIFA from EA Sports they have rolled out a new feature that allows you to impose a 3D representation of your face onto your in game 'Pro'. Now if you're anything like me you will be thinking that you have seen this all before and it will just be the usual low resolution 2D webcam image stretched over a generic in game character model creating a creepy looking long lost cousin rather than a true representation. However after a quick visit to the easportsfootball website my concerns were quickly dispelled. Although it's still a Beta release the tool uses both a front and side view of your head to generate a fully detailled 3D model.

The Game Face utility is accessed online, you will need to download and install a couple of utilities but from there all the magic happens from within your browser. Initially you are asked to upload a picture of the front of your face, there are whole list of recomendations for composing the pic, but I just used my camera default settings, stuck the flash on and struck a passport photo style pose.

With the front view of your face uploaded you then have to edit it to give the software some starting points. I've got to hand it to EA, their instructions are pretty thorough but I've included some screen caps of the steps I took just as to demonstrate the process. You start by resizing and rotating you face until it fits within the window you are given. Try to remember that the software is looking for your facial features not your hair, neck and ears etc. When your happy click next, in this screen you are asked to place a series of markers on specific distinguishing features such as your nose mouth and chin. Again its all fairly self explanatory, when you click on each cross it tells you were you should be placing it.
 
  
The side view is optional, but if you're gonna do a job you might as well do it properly right? Configuring your side view is pretty much the same procedure as the front albeit slightly trickier. Firstly you have to adjust your picture to fit within the sihouette, ideally you need quite a close view of yourself or you will have to zoom in a fair bit. Don't expect to get a perfect match to the profile but you should be able to get it pretty close. Then its just a case of positioning the facial markers as best you can and finally selecting a skin tone from the provided colour pallette and clicking generate.
  
      
At this point you're greeted with a loading screen warning you that the generation can take as long as 10 minutes depending on your hardware specification. I was genuinely quite excited to see the results but worried that it could just turn out to be a big waste of time. As it transpired the results were awesome and well worth the effort, which they needed to be to remain consistent with the amazingly accurate character models in the game. My only gripe is that you have to match your hair to a limited selection of style and colours and some of the det ail is removed when the model is transferred into the game. That said when you see yourself in your team colours slamming one past Van Der Saar who cares if hair looks a little darker than normal! 
 
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Too far beyond the Call of Duty?

By pdcdesign 3 Comments

(Spoiler Alert! This article reveals some plot and story details - you have been warned!)

The anticipation and hype surrounding the release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 - Infinity Ward's 6th release from the Call of Duty series has been unprecedented. It is undoubtedly going to be this years Christmas number one, it has broken all previous pre-order records and is set to be one of the biggest selling titles of all time. In many ways the build up and launch of this game is unprecedented; even my local supermarket has copies of MW2 piled high to take advantage of the buzz. As someone who loves games and has played them ever since Super Mario on the NES this great to see, but having dipped my feet into this title I can't help but feel concern. Whilst the developers can't be blamed for warfare being the central theme of the years best selling game, I do think they have shown poor judgement and gone too far this time with one of the key set pieces in the game. In case you haven't guessed already I am referring to the already notorious airport mission.

For those of you who don't already know, during the early stages of the game you take the role of an undercover CIA operative who has infiltrated a group of Russian terrorists led by a man named Makarov. In the level titled "No Russian", you step out into a crowded Russian airport holding a loaded machine gun alongside Makarov and his accomplices. As you take control of your undercover agent the civilians begin to panic and you receive an on screen prompt to follow Makarovs lead. Makarov and his men start marching through the crowd gunning everyone down in their wake leaving you to decide whether to join in with the shooting or just stand by and watch. With the entire airport in turmoil you then have to fight your way past the armed forces to an escape van. At this point Makarov turns and shoots you in the head foiling the undercover operation and leaving an American body at the scene of the crime sparking a full scale war between Russia and America. So do the millions of people who placed their pre-orders and queued up over-night for this title have a right to feel let down by Infinity Ward? or should we celebrate the brave story telling and point to this as an example of video games maturing to a point were they can tackle the sort of global issues that we would normally associate with literature and film?

 

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The Call of Duty series has earned its appeal by putting players in situations that they cannot always control, playing on the idea of a soldier being a pawn and capitalising on the 1st person perspective to give you a feel for what life on the front-line is like. When the first game launched in 2003 it was set during World War 2 as apposed to modern day but the design values have remained much the same. Essentially each release has featured a series of set pieces taken from both famous and fictional battles - normally your character is supported by a unit or an entire army of computer controlled allies. I can vividly remember the first time I played as a Soviet troop in the Battle of Stalingrad; dying twice before my boat even reached the shore, then when I eventually reached the beach I was issued with a gun and no ammunition having to make my way towards the gunfire in search of ammo from one of my fallen comrades. Although I appreciate that this content can hardly be classed as family friendly, the attention to detail, gritty atmosphere and cinematic presentation gave the level a poignancy. You felt a connection to your character and because the level had a historic foundation there was always a sobering realisation that men not too long ago were faced with this plight. These emotions are a stark contrast to the feeling of disgust I felt playing through "No Russian" on my PS3.

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The comparison between the Stalingrad scene and the Airport level in Modern Warfare 2 is interesting because in both instances the level is on rails throughout. The game forces you down a predetermined route so your decisions do not change the outcome of the level, essentially it's a live action cut-scene. In a World War 2 context this seems to work because of the historical fact that many men were literally ordered to their death. In contrast, the lack of control in the airport level leaves me feeling uneasy and frustrated, apart from the fact that you are shooting unarmed civilians there is no way of making a stand and turning against Makarov and his men. If I was the undercover agent in a modern day setting I'm not so sure I'd be blindly following these orders, yet the games narrative is fixed so it plays out the same way regardless of your decisions. I found you can actually walk through the level without firing a bullet up to the point where you break outside and armed police arrive. Strangely I did feel more at ease shooting the  armed forces as they approached in their uniforms, but any recovery in my feelings was quickly dispelled when Makarov turned and shot me to conclude the level. For me the level was poorly executed resulting in a largely uncomfortable experience that didn't need to be included as a playable level.

I should mention that the developers give you the option to skip the offensive content when you first load up the game and at any point during the level. But to me this to me this just acts as further evidence that the level was inherently flawed; it's almost as if Infinity Ward wanted to make a big statement, then climbed up onto the fence as soon as they sensed the media uproar. I think it should have either forced the players hand by making them take part in the terrorist act ie. have Makarov demand you to finish someone off, or it should have allowed the player the freedom to take matters into their own hands and fight back. All this said I have thoroughly enjoyed the rest of the Modern Warfare 2 single player campaign and have already racked up more hours than I'd like to admit to online. I could have done without the "No Russian" experience but Infinity Ward do generally get it right - the nuclear bomb in the previous Modern Warfare springs to mind. I just hope that the criticism associated with this level doesn't lead to the industry taking excessive caution with future titles and instead it acts as a catalyst for more creative and challenging story-lines.
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